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TERMS & CONDITIONS
1. Colourings and Ingredients
The Wedding Cake Company does not guarantee to match up the
exact colours and designs you have chosen due to the fact that
every cake is handmade by us in our kitchens and may vary
despite every effort being made.
Please be aware that whilst your chosen cake may not be made
with nuts or a nut product, it will be prepared in a kitchen
where nut products may be used in other cakes and fillings.
Some of the items on your cake might be made out of sugar-paste,
The Wedding Cake Company strongly recommend that these are not
eaten as they contain a high concentrate of colouring. The
decorations may also contain wires, jewels and other non-edible
products. It is yours or your caterer’s responsibility to ensure
that these non-edible products are removed before serving the
cake to yourself or your guests. Alternatively, we can provide a
fully edible cake that is not so highly decorated or coloured.
2.Setting-Up
Whilst the Wedding Cake Company will try to ensure that your
cake is presented at its very best we cannot be held responsible
for the location of the cake at the venue, the stability or
levelness of the table upon which the cake is displayed or the
quality of the surrounding around the cake. Please ensure,
therefore, that the 'cake presentation table' is level, stable
and strong enough to hold the cake. A large six tier rich fruit
wedding cake will weight up to 7Kg. Please also remember that
chocolate covered cakes can melt under extreme conditions as are
found within a marquee on a hot Summers day.
Once the cake has been collected or delivered, set-up, and
signed for The Wedding Cake Company cannot be held responsible
for any interference or damage to the cake.
3. Equipment Hire
All equipment requires a cash deposit. The deposit will be
reimbursed in full to the hirer on safe return of the hired
equipment provided it has not suffered any damage whatsoever.
Damage includes: cuts, chips, scratches, breakages, cracks,
rips, tears, dents, bending, staining and discolouration. All
hired equipment should be clean and in the original packaging
provided. Violation of any signed agreements can result in The
Wedding Cake Company Limited withholding the deposit in part or
full.
In addition, failure to return the hired equipment on the
specified day will carry a penalty of £5 per item per day until
the entire deposit is lost.
4. Payments
In the unlikely event that you have problems with your wedding
arrangements, which may include payments for services from The
Wedding Cake Company Limited, it recommended that you take out
wedding insurance to cover all eventualities. This will give
both you and your wedding service providers 'peace of mind' and
will avoid any unnecessary problems.
4.1 Deposits
All Wedding Cakes require a non-refundable deposit of 25% of the
total cost which will become due once the order has been placed and
details checked and agreed by you.
The balance is due no later than 14 days before the date of the
Wedding. Payment needs to be made by using either cash or cheque
supported by a banker's card.
If your order exceeds £1000 full payment is required once an
order is placed of which 25% is non-returnable. If all cases,
the same cancellation policy applies for orders over £1000 (see
section 4.3)
4.2 Non Payment
Please note, that if full payment of the wedding
cake is not received 14 days prior to the delivery, collection
and/or set-up date, it is assumed that the cake has been
cancelled. The cancellation policy, therefore, applies in all
cases
4.3 Cancellation Policy
If for any reason it is necessary for you to cancel your Wedding
Cake order the following charges will apply:
-
14 days after confirming your order
and up until 14 days prior to
the delivery/collection date, incurs a 10% cancellation fee of
the total amount. This is in addition to the non-refundable
deposit paid.
-
14 days to 7 days prior to the delivery/collection date, incurs
a 50% cancellation fee of the total amount paid is incurred. The
balance is due no later than 14 days before the date of the
Wedding, therefore, 50% of the total cost will be refunded.
-
7 days prior to the delivery/collection date, the customer will
be charged the full amount of the cake. The balance is due no
later than 14 days before the date of the Wedding, therefore, no
refund will be given.
4.4 Change of Wedding Date
If, for any reason you wish to re-arrange the date of your
wedding, The Wedding cake Company will try its best to
accommodate these changes without any additional charges
provided sufficient notice is given and that we are able to
provide a cake for the re-arranged wedding date. However, if we
are fully booked on your new wedding date and cannot provide the
wedding cake, it will not be possible to refund your 25%
deposit. The limiting factor
with any cake provision is usually the cake set-up. As a
compromise, it may be possible to provide you with a cake prior
to your wedding date, but under these circumstances it will
become your responsibility to collect, deliver and set-up the
cake at the venue.
5. Publication and Promotional Rights.
By signing the Order Form the client hereby agrees that Colin
Vincent is the sole designer and owner of the final cake design.
All cake designs used by Colin Vincent remain the property of
The Wedding Cake Company Limited. The client has no
ownership rights over any cake design. We reserve the right to
re-use and publish our photographs of the client's cake as and
when required. Whilst we try to ensure that all published
designs by Colin Vincent are exclusive to the The Wedding Cake
Company Limited, we do not guaranteed exclusivity of cake
designs between our clients. The only exception to this rule is
when the customer commissions a exclusive design (see section
5.4).
5.1 Ownership Rights
The relationship between the client (the purchaser of the cake)
and the Wedding Cake Company Limited and the ownership of the
product(s) purchased by the client from The Wedding Cake Company
Limited are clear in law. The client owns the cake once
delivered to the venue or collected, by prior agreement with
Colin Vincent (MD), from The Wedding Cake Company. If the client
fails to pay the full amount for the cake and/or products, as
agreed and stated on the order form, then ownership of the
products remains with The Wedding Cake Company Limited and not
the client.
The responsibility of ensuring the cake remains in good order
lies with the owner of the cake. The transfer of ownership also
equates to the transfer of responsibility. For example, when
ownership of the cake is transferred to the client it becomes
the client's responsibility to ensure the cake remains in good
order. A form provided by The Wedding Cake Company Limited is
signed on transfer of ownership to ensure that the cake is
handed over in good order.
5.2 Design Rights
The ownership of the 'cake design' remains with The Wedding Cake
Company Limited and is not transfer on ownership of the product
to the client. This is important because it means that The
Wedding Cake Company Limited has the right to publish and sell
the the aforementioned 'cake design' to other clients. During
the consultation process the client views a range of existing
cake designs (dummy cakes) developed exclusively by Colin
Vincent for The Wedding Cake Company Limited. The client selects
a design, variation of a design or part/combinations of various
designs developed by the company. This is standard practice
within the industry.
5.3 Unique Designs (limited range)
Whilst an individual 'cake design' is not exclusive to the
client the 'cake design' will be exclusive to the Wedding Cake
Company Limited. In addition, since all cakes are hand-made and
not mass produced every cake is different. The chances of
another client requesting exactly the same 'cake design' as the
client's is very small, so it is likely that your cake design
will be exclusive to you, however this is not guaranteed. Minor
adjustments to our published designs is one method of ensuring
your cake remains relatively exclusive (see section 5.5). This is because it is unlikely that
we will publish a similar 'cake design' twice. This may
mean that cakes published in the past and in the future may look
similar to the customers design, but not exactly the same. The
only way to prevent this is to commission an exclusive design -
this is a expensive process and something only our wealthiest
customers have ever requested (see section 5.4)
5.4 Commissioning an Exclusive Design
If you wish to own an exclusive design then you must commission
the design. This will involve the production of one or more
dummy cakes, fully iced and fully decorated, which act as a
prototypes to the final design. It will also mean the design of
a recipe and/or development of unique internal appearance of the
cake (a common example is the
Battenburg cake).
The cost of this
service starts at £1000. We guarantee that we will not keep any
record of the design on file or offer the same design to any
other customer. This design will not be discussed with any other
customer, and will not be photographed and published by us,
therefore, the design will remain confidential. However, it is the client responsibility to
protect their design as they will be the ones holding the final prototypes for
the cake and the cake itself on the wedding day. The cake
dummies will allow the clients to hold private photographic
sessions before and/or after the wedding day.
Due to this high cost of commissioning, The Wedding
Cake Company Limited does not commonly offer this exclusive one
off design service to every customer. Instead, for our most
usual customer, Colin Vincent (MD) develops new
ranges of cakes and recipes each year and enters one or more of
these to various International Cake Shows. These award winning
cake designs form the basis of our design portfolio for the
following season from which you can select. These are referred
to as Customised Designs (see section 5.5) .
5.5 Customised Designs
Customised Designs are the commonest cake design we sell. These
are designs based on cakes or combinations of cakes from our
collection with suitable adaptions to the design established
through a free consultation. Using this technique we can match
the colours to the wedding and make minor alterations to our
designs to ensure you get a unique cake at an affordable price.
5.6 External Published Designs
The Wedding Cake Company Limited will not make exact copies of
other cake designs produced by other UK registered Cake
Companies. This ensures that cakes within the industry remain
exclusive to those companies and also ensures that there is a
large variety of 'cake designs'' available to clients and helps
maintain exclusivity. This is healthy for the industry and helps
to differentiate us from the mass market.
6. The Design Process
The Wedding Cake Company Limited defines the design of a cake as
the result or outcome of the consultation or design process
conduct between The Wedding Cake Company representative and the
client. During the consultation the representative will discuss
and elicit from the client a list of requirements for their
cake. Once these requirements are accept by the client an order
form is written out listing these requirements. This is signed
by the client and a deposit paid. At this stage no design
exists. The client has not paid for the design only the
ingredients for making the design, the reservation date, and the
list of requirements. The Wedding cake company will then design
a cake to meet those requirements. If the customer has
commissioned a design they will receive a full sized replica of
the design to keep before the production of the wedding cake
which is an exclusive service (see section 5.4).
7. Formal Definition of a Cake Design
A cake design is like any other designed product and has two
elements to it: Function and Form.
The Function is the first aspect of the cake design determines the 'fitness of
purpose of the design' . This means that the wedding cake has
been designed to meet the requirements of the couple. These
aspect of the 'cake design' do not involve the wedding couple
and are the sole concern of the professional cake designer and
maker. For example, the cake will be designed to remain
upright and stable for the duration of the wedding. The Form of
the cake is the second aspect of the design and it to do with
the outward impression of the cake. This means the cake has been
designed to meet the visual, textual and taste requirements of
the couple. It is this that the customer usually understands as
the design of cake. For example, the cake designer will use an
appropriate sized icing nozzles to reflect the degree of
delicacy required on royal icing filigree. The choice of nozzle
size is a decision for the designer of the cake and the customer
will not need to worry about this kind of detail.
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